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Space Management

The first step in using the software is to enter your space inventory. By "space inventory", we mean a virtual model of all sites, buildings, floors, and rooms in a facility. You can work in a detailed manner or on a macro scale.

The Quick Build wizard lets you enter space inventory quickly. If you want or need information quickly prior to getting a detailed space inventory into the software, you can take the macro approach. To do this, just input the total square footage of each type of space.

This screenshot shows the final results of the space inventory for a particular building.

Area Types

You can tailor Area Types so they reflect conditions at your institution. Tailoring the Area Types includes adding and deleting cleaning activities, changing times to accomplish activities and varying the frequencies of these cleaning activities.

A room can be assigned different activities in the three different work shifts. You can also create new Area Types as well as change activity times. It is important to understand that an Area Type really means two things:

1. It is a definition of all the tasks and their frequencies accomplished in a room, and thus determines the time and cost to clean the room. So, if a task frequency is changed in an Area Type, it changes the labor estimates and costs associated with all rooms designated that Area Type.

2. Since each task has a frequency, the Area Type is also the cleaning schedule for all rooms designated that Area Type. This cleaning schedule aspect affects any work assignment to which the room is attached."

Tasks

The Quick Build Wizard allows you to create a template building of any size in a matter of minutes. Each of the basic screens for adding components have their own mini-wizards for adding multiple items at a time. And, auxiliary information, such as space classification, floor type, department, etc., is selected from easy-to-use drop-down lists.

Analysis

There are five Quick Calculators in the Labor Estimates Menu for doing detailed analysis.The most powerful calculator is called "Scenario Manager." It is arguably the most powerful tool in the entire program. In all cases, while you start with any task, you may modify the task and then quickly see how the change affects labor needs. Scenario Manager Scenarios are a distillation of your current space inventory and a snapshot of the current area types, task frequencies, and productivity assumptions. The total square feet (or meters) cleaned by area type is also saved. However, you may modify the total area, the task base times, and even the productivity assumptions. Two sets of task frequencies are created that are initially equal to your actual current settings—but either set can be modified.

Once the scenario is created, it is divorced from your space inventory. So, subsequent changes in your areas cleaned, tasks frequencies and area types used are not reflected in the old scenarios. Likewise, any changes you make here to frequencies or total area do not affect anything in the primary database.

Work Loading

Work assignments are classified as either routine or project work. There are three steps to building a work assignment.

1. Create records of employees as needed to associate with work assignments. If desired, a "generic" employee can be created to represent employees and this may be the best approach if turnover is high. However, if the software is used for performing inspections keep in mind that a record of the employee associated is maintained. At any time, the associated employee may be changed.

2. Create named work assignments that will be populated with work in the next step. Work assignments are designated as either one of the three routine shifts, or project work and this cannot be changed as long as rooms are associated with the assignment.

3. Build the assignment – which is done a little differently depending on whether it is a routine or project work type of assignment:

a. Routine work assignments are built by adding rooms to it and the assumption that all routine work is performed.

b. Project work assignments are built by selecting specific tasks and then adding rooms with the assumption being that only the selected tasks are performed.

Inspections

Inspections are done using task classifications, such as "Floors", or inspection criteria for individual tasks, such as "Scuff Marks" and these are weighted to reflect the actual time spent on the task. The inspection grading is done on the same 1-5 system used for the cleanliness levels, or you may use pass/fail systems where 1-3 is a passing and 4-5 are considered failing. Add/Edit/Delete Supervisory Zones Supervisory zones group work assignments together for record creation and analysis.

Just as employees are associated with work assignments, employees are associated with supervisory zones. Using this function, the supervisor associated with a zone can be changed and work assignments "moved" from one zone to another.

Supplies

The ability to estimate cleaning chemical usage is not common among programs of this type. Even among programs offering this capability, we feel INFORMED CMS is outstanding in its power and ease-of-use.

Compare Products

There are two "Compare Products" windows to allow instant analysis. Both let you set up a head-to-head comparison using all possible combinations of dilution types and determine what usage should be for any frequency and cleaning area.

The User Defined vs. User Defined window lets you develop a scenario (frequency, cleaning area in square feet) for any two arbitrary products.

The Supply Library vs. User Defined window allows you to set up a scenario for any product in the Supply Library and compare it to an arbitrary product.

This screenshot is a typical record of a supply item that is in the inventory.

Equipment

The Equipment Module contains a handy group of functions for maintaining a database of equipment and/or assets and associating them with rooms, employees, and types. The Equipment Library contains data on a sample set of typical machines that can be used as a basis for analysis. However, new machines can be added to allow analysis based on any type of equipment.

Compare Machines

The first item on the equipment menu allows you to analyze machine productivity and determine the time and cost savings associated with different machines and processes.

There are two functions available here:

1. Machine vs. Machine: This function allows you to enter data on any machine out of the Equipment Library and determine the associated costs given any task frequency and square feet cleaned. Two machines can be analyzed side-by-side, allowing comparisons to be made.

2. Machine vs. ISSA: This allows you to compare a machine in the Equipment Library against a theoretical machine using ISSA cleaning times.

This screenshot is a typical equipment or asset record that is in the inventory.

Employees

The Employee Module allows you Add/Edit/Delete Employees. Employees can be associatied the Work in the Work Assignments module.

Information on people is also used in the Inspection module of the program (evaluators, cleaners, and supervisors) in the Equipment module (ownership) and in other places within the software.

Personnel and Training Records. The Records button at the top of the window, is a way to keep a record of things pertaining to each individual. It is here that you can enter data, such as training records or other employee actions for the individual whose record is currently displayed.

The Print By Action button will show all employee records of a selected type. So, for example, with a large crew – each employee's skills or area type proficiencies can be shown in one report – useful if a supervisor is absent and a substitute wishes to ensure assignments are within employees' skill sets.